Ainsworth’s strange situation

• The strange situation is a way to assess the nature of attachment, the aim was to see how infants aged 9-18 months behaved under certain situations
• Stress is created in the strange situation by the presence of strangers and separation with the caregiver
• In the strange situation, infants are observed playing whilst caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room and the infants pattern and style of attachment is assessed
• The eight stages of the strange situation

  1. Parent and infant are introduced to the experimental room

  2. Parent and infant are left alone and the parent doesn't participate whilst the infant explores

  3. The stranger enters and converses with the parent, then the mother leaves the room discreetly

  4. First separated- the stranger tries interacting with the infant

  5. First reunion- stranger leaves and the parent enters and greets the infant, before leaving the room again

  6. Second separation- the infant is left alone in the room

  7. Continuation of second separation- the stranger enters the room and tries to interact with the infant

  8. Second reunion- the parent enters, greets and picks up the infant whilst the stranger leaves the room
• The four aspects of the infants behaviour are observed:

  1. The secure base- the amount of exploring
  2. separation anxiety- departure of the caregiver
  3. stranger anxiety- infant being left alone with the stranger
  4. reunion behaviour- the child’s reaction to the caregivers return
• Infant attachment was classified into three types:

  type B: secure attachment (66%)

  type A: insecure avoidant (22%)

  type C: insecure resistant (12%)
• Children with the secure attachment type have co-operative interactions with their caregivers and their mother is used as a safe base for exploration. The children are wary of stranger but still happy to play while mother present and are distressed on separation but greets mother warmly upon return
• Children with the insecure avoidant attachment type avoid social interaction and intimacy and their play is hardly affected whether their mother was present or not and experience little distress when separated from mother. The children reject comfort from stranger and avoids contact upon the mothers return
• Children with the insecure resistant attachment type both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction. they’re fussy and clingy and wary of stranger even when mother is present and are very distressed when the mother leaves. they sought contact with mother upon her return but appeared very angry and resisted it
• Main and Soloman (1986) claimed that after re-analysing over 200 strange situation videotapes, there was evidence to suggest that there were some children whose behaviour didn’t fit clearly into the types of attachment
• Main and Soloman (1986) observed that the children exhibited a number of behaviours that weren’t consistent with one attachment type, by seemed to incorporate elements of some or all of them, they called it insecure disorganised
• The insecure disorganised attachment type was characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour and lack appropriate strategies for dealing with the stress of separation. This is categorised by seeking intimacy suddenly followed by avoidance and odd behaviour when a caregiver is present
• The attachment types could be argued to be an oversimplification since it doesn’t have any variations in behaviour that may occur within the attachment categories
• Ainsworth (1978) reported 94% agreement between observers of the strange situation. Therefore, they have high inter-observer reliability, meaning different observers agree with the categorisation of infant behaviour and attachment type. this decreases the impact of observer bias on the findings, and increases the reliability of this method